Dam

It is no surprise that the neo-Maoist regime of Deng Xiaoping is going ahead, do-it-now style, on the world's biggest hydro-electric project. The 600-foot dam on China's unruly Yangtze River will produce untold millions of kilowatts of electric power and change forever the majestic Three Gorges.It is no surprise that the decades-long argument for taming the Yangtze floods, harnessing its power and making its upper reaches navigable won out over fears of lost wildlife and farmland and geological instability.

Energy production has emerged as arguably the primary growth engine for America's economy. Oil production is surging, and the United States will emerge as the world's leading producer sometime this decade. America has already established self-sufficiency in natural gas, with the construction of many liquefied natural gas terminals that would export gas now under consideration. Wind and solar costs are falling, and America continues to be the largest producer of the globe's most reliable carbon free energy source: nuclear power.

Several hundred people got a new perspective on the Loch Raven Reservoir Sunday, watching the Gunpowder River pour over the spillway as they stood on the dam itself, just a few yards from the water. It was the Baltimore Department of Public Works' third Loch Raven Day, one day a year when the public is invited into an otherwise off-limits area for the unusual view. "It's awesome," said Dave Wilmot, a fire safety engineer from Lutherville, expressing a sentiment heard often during the unexpectedly sunny afternoon that drew families outdoors.

The general election is still more than two months away but here's a bit of friendly advice to candidates hoping to win office in Maryland: Don't use the Conowingo Dam as an excuse to stop cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. That would seem like common sense but it's become increasingly clear that damning the dam has become a popular political strategy. Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Hogan released a 30-second ad through his website last month that essentially blames the Conowingo for the bay's woes and urges voters to fight back against other pollution-fighting strategies endorsed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Democratically-controlled state government.

As long as you're in the area, try to take a tour at one of th Columbia River dams, either Bonneville or the Dalles.Try to see the dams when salmon or steelhead are on a spawning run. The timing varies depending on species, but a good choice is usually the fall chinook run; check with the dam visitor centers. Both dams have ladder systems that are used to help fish bypass the dams on their way upstream to spawn, and you get pretty good views of the fish milling around as they head east.The free tours also include a look at the giant machinery used to generate electricity.

A leak in Deep Creek Dam in Garrett County prompted an alert to area residents, Maryland Department of the Environment officials reported. There was no immediate threat of the dam failing, according to state officials. "MDE has sent staff from our compliance program to investigate the leak," MDE Secretary Shari T. Wilson said in a statement. "We will continue to monitor the situation as long as necessary to ensure the safety of Maryland residents living in the vicinity." The leak is in the penstock, which takes water from Deep Creek Lake to the dam's powerhouse.

How fragile is Lake Roland Dam? At a state hearing earlier this year, Maryland's chief official for dam safety called the 131-year-old earthen structure in central Baltimore County "a major disaster waiting to happen."The official, Brad Iarossi, added, "We were lucky the dam did not fail" in the wake of two tropical storms, Agnes in 1972 and David in 1979. A 1984 study described a once-in-10,000-years storm that would smash the structure with a 9 1/2 -foot-high wall of water. An eight-foot-high wave would then rush down the Jones Falls for six miles; downtown Baltimore would be under four feet of water.

BURKESVILLE, Ky. --Below the Wolf Creek Dam, which holds back the biggest manmade lake east of the Mississippi, residents joke that they are not worried about a breach but sleep in life jackets, just in case. Above the dam, they jest that since the Army Corps of Engineers labeled the structure "high risk" in January and lowered the water in Lake Cumberland to 40 feet below its summer level, residents now have some of the best "mud front" property in the country. A nervous sense of humor has taken hold in this area, famed for its trout fishing and million-dollar houseboats, as worries grow about the dam, a mile-long concrete and earthen behemoth that is leaking and showing signs of age. "That's a lot of water," said Keith Riddle, the mayor and barber here, about the trillion gallons of water 10 miles upstream sitting behind the dam, enough to cover the state of Kentucky to a depth of 3 inches.

Three Baltimore County beaches are closed after health officials determined that the level of bacteria there makes swimming unsafe. Officials said Wednesday that Genesee Valley Outdoor Learning Center (Upper Pond), Oregon Ridge Park Beach and Beaver Dam Swim Club Beach have unsafe levels of bacteria. The high levels of bacteria were caused by the region's unusual amount of rainfall in recent weeks, they said. The beaches will re-open when testing shows it is safe, they said. For information on water testing in the county, visit http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/health/environmentalhealth/watersampling/results.html alisonk@baltsun.com twitter.com/aliknez

The County Council approved the transfer Monday night of an additional $665,000 to complete reconstruction of the Lake Waterford Dam in Pasadena.The money will be used to supplement funds that were already budgeted for the reconstruction, ordered in February because the state Department of Natural Resources declared the dam structurally unsafe. The bid was higher than recreation and parks officials expected.The total project will cost $1,272,550.The dam, which lies on the east side of the 11-acre lake in Pasadena, was built in 1929.

Two kayakers who were injured after falling 200 feet over the face of the dam at Prettyboy Reservoir have been charged with trespassing. Paul K. Hare, 22, and Stephen D. Sparks, 21, both of Parkton, are charged with criminal trespassing and face $1,000 fines and one year in jail, said the Baltimore Environmental Police, which patrol the reservoir. "All things considered, they were lucky," said Officer Heidi Greenleaf with Baltimore Environmental Police. She said she could not recall a similar incident where boaters attempted to go over the dam. Greenleaf said it is unclear whether the men were purposely attempting to go over the dam, or did so accidentally, but that alcohol played a factor.

One patient was released from hospital care and another was in stable condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Monday, after the two fell 200 feet off Prettyboy Dam in northern Baltimore County this weekend, police said. It was not clear whether the men, in their early 20s, were hiking or kayaking before the fall, Baltimore Environmental Police Officer Heidi Greenleaf said, but alcohol was a factor in the incident. The men were not identified. The one who was released from York General Hospital had a broken left arm and head injuries, and the other remained hospitalized at Shock Trauma Monday with a severe head injury, possible broken bones and internal injuries, Greenleaf said.

Divers with the Baltimore County Police Department on Sunday recovered the body of a man who went missing Saturday at the Beaver Dam Swim Club in Cockeysville. Baltimore County police and fire spokesman Cpl. John Wachter said the body of Steve Curtis Jennings Jr., 36, of New Carrolton, was recovered from the water at 7:40 p.m. Sunday. Family members said he was last seen about 2:45 p.m. Saturday near a diving board at the freshwater quarry, which has an average depth of about 40 feet.

Tucked amid the woods of northern Baltimore County is one of Maryland's natural gems - the Big Gunpowder Falls, a nationally renowned trout stream that draws anglers from far and wide to try their skills and luck in the cold, rushing water. But some fishermen and fishing guides say they're having a harder time getting at this prized outdoor resource - though it's publicly accessible in Gunpowder Falls State Park - because of unusually heavy river flows that make it hard to fish or even stand at times in the water.

Editor: Some of my fondest memories are from my time spent at the Conowingo Dam. As someone that has spent a lot of time at the recreation areas around Conowingo Dam and seen its operation firsthand, a recent Aegis editorial about sedimentation behind the dam got it wrong. The dam is one of the best recreational places in the entire state and is important to the bay's ecological health. The fisherman's wharf is a great spot to observe the many fish species of the Bay, including bass, shad, catfish and walleye.

Water rescue teams pulled two people out of the Susquehanna River near Conowingo Dam after reports of a missing kayaker early afternoon on Memorial Day. Rescue personnel and watercraft were staged along the river south of the dam near the Rock Run Road area in Susquehanna State Park, according to monitored Harford County emergency radio broadcasts shortly before 12:30 p.m. The two people were rescued at about 1:30 p.m. and taken to Lapidum Landing,...

WASHINGTON -- The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday that he would veto construction of the Two Forks Dam in Colorado, a large water project sought by developers and opposed by environmentalists.The administrator, William K. Reilly, said in an interview that the proposed $1 billion dam, which would be the most expensive dam in U.S. history entirely financed by a state and localities, would cause "unacceptable environmental damage."The project was intended to augment long-term water supplies for Denver and surrounding communities, but Mr. Reilly said there were other, more acceptable sources ofwater that would not destroy valuable wetlands, wildlife areas and a scenic canyon.

Finger-pointing flared yesterday in Port Deposit, where residents cleaning up the mud and muck from their worst flood in a quarter-century blamed the neighboring Conowingo Dam for inadequate notice that the water was coming.Mayor Erma Keetley said the town might sue PECO Energy Co., which operates the hydroelectric dam two miles up the Susquehanna River.PECO officials said they coped with the emergency as best they could, building sandbag walls to protect the dam's machinery and mechanisms that control the floodgates.

Sediment buildup behind Conowingo Dam poses a relatively small threat to the Chesapeake Bay's health, a federal official said at a Senate hearing Monday. He predicted it could cost billions of dollars to address the risk by dredging the river bottom, and suggested it was not worth the expense. Col. J. Richard Jordan III, commander of the Baltimore District of the Army Corps of Engineers, testified at the hearing - held at the dam, rather than in Washington - that only 20 percent of the muck that turned the upper bay brown after Tropical Storm Lee in 2011 came from the buildup behind the hydroelectric facility, according to a joint federal-state study.

Harford County emergency officials began bracing for potential flooding Tuesday afternoon, with between 3 to 5 inches of additional rain forecast to fall on the county in the ensuing 24 to 48 hours. Representatives from the Harford County Department of Emergency Services and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency went to the north county area Tuesday afternoon to ask some residents along Little Deer Creek to consider leaving their homes because an earthen dam was in potential danger of being breached.